Plastinated Camel

This afternoon we went to the Natural History Museum, to see "Animal Inside Out", an exhibition of dissected and plastinated animals by Gunter von Hagens. Plastination is a method of preservation he has developed which "involves extracting all water and fatty tissues from the specimen and replacing them with polymers in a vacuum. The plastination process stops the decay of dead bodies and prepares specimens for scientific and medical education. It is an odourless form of preservation and lasts a long time." Or to put it another way, seeing the exploded musculature of an male adult elephant, or the body of a shark represented solely by its preserved capillaries, is bloody fascinating. (So fascinating that we signed up as members of the museum, which among other things entitles us to free entry to special exhibtions like this, but that's another story.)

Photography isn't permitted in the exhibition itself -- they'd rather you bought the exhibition book, of course -- but as a teaser there's a plastinated Bactrian camel displayed in the central hall, which can be photographed. The five images below show, in order, two general views of the plastinated camel, from the front -- the head and neck have been split longitudinally into three, so that they can be separately posed and the inner structure seen to best effect; a closer view of the inner part of the split head, showing its tongue and teeth; a view of the preserved internal organs from the right-hand side; and a view of same from the left-hand side, where the stomach has been cut open to show the digestive process at work, producing what will eventually become camel dung. As I said: bloody fascinating!

Mutant Peace Lily

These plants normally produce one white flower, but this one bears three. Look closer, and it will be seen that the larger has two petals. Look closer still, and the smaller flower actually has three petals (two upright and one curled underneath). The plant also has a split leaf -- not a natural tear, but a leaf which divides halfway along to form two points -- and a couple of fused stems. What mysterious source of radiation lurks beneath our living room windowsill to have caused this?

Fox at the Allotment

At the allotment yesterday, early evening: I'd spilled some peanuts when refilling the bird feeders, and expected pigeons to hoover them up. Instead, a mother fox appeared, and spent the next fifteen minutes eating them, blithely ignoring us weeding and watering only a few metres away.